Mick Malthouse said Swan’s round 10 effort last season, in which the Magpie star gathered 22 kicks and 26 handballs, was among his best for 2009 but he had seen his ball winner perform better.
“I personally, along with the rest of the match committee, didn’t think it was his best game,” Malthouse said of Swan’s display.
“He may well have been our best player but when you start to weigh up what is [his] best and what is best on the day, sometimes there could be a distinct difference.
“I would say that Dane had better games during the year than 48 possessions.”
Collingwood won the match by 38 points, with Swan collecting the three Brownlow votes - one of only two times he did last year.
However Malthouse was quick to point out that in a statistics-focused era, big numbers didn’t always necessarily equate to a good game.
“You can wander around in today’s football and I can handpass to you six or seven times, back and forth, get nowhere because sides decide to hang off you,” he said.
“And that’s an accumulation of stats that are sometimes totally irrelevant.
“I see full-backs kick it to themselves [from a kick-out and then] take one step. I don’t know what their motive is.
“Perhaps it’s to build up their stats, perhaps it’s their methodology but they get accredited with a kick stat.
“They could have taken the same kick behind the line and get no stat for it, so we’ve got to be careful about statistics these days.”
Regardless of Malthouse’s warnings of cheap stats, the Power is certain to remember Swan’s rampage last season and try to keep him on a tighter rein on Friday night.
They had made a good fist of that in recent times. Swan’s 2009 effort was something of a breakout performance against Port Adelaide.
In his five previous outings against the Power, he had averaged just 19 disposals a match - his previous PB being a 22-disposal effort in round five of 2006.
